Synaxarion for the Sunday of Holy Pentecost
On the eighth Sunday of Pascha, we celebrate Holy Pentecost.
Verses
Christ bestoweth the divine Spirit upon the apostles
in tongues of fire, through a mighty wind.
The Spirit is poured forth upon the fishermen on the great day.
As [the Jews] celebrate Pentecost among them, honoring the number seven, and because they received the Law when they had passed fifty days after Passover, so do we, celebrating fifty days after Pascha, receive the most Holy Spirit, Who layeth down laws and guideth toward every truth, and ordaineth those things which are pleasing to God. Be it known that the Hebrews had three festivals: Pascha, Pentecost and Sukkoth, which is, the Feast of Booths. They celebrated Passover in memory of their being led across the Red Sea, for Passover meaneth passing over. And our feast is also such, signifying our passing over from the darkness of sin and our return to paradise. They celebrated Pentecost in memory of their suffering in the wilderness, and how through many tribulations they were brought into the promised land; for they enjoyed the fruit of wheat and wine. And this feast doth commemorate for us our affliction due to unbelief and our entry into the Church; for then we also receive communion of the Body and Blood of the Master. There are those who say that Pentecost is celebrated among the Jews for just this reason; while others say that this was in honor of the fifty days during which Moses, fasting, received the divinely inscribed Law; moreover, they also commemorated the sacrifice of the heifer and the other one carried out by Moses when he ascended the mountain and descended it. In the opinion of others, the Jewish Pentecost was established in honor of the number seven, as has been said; for, multiplied by itself, it gives the number fifty minus one. But the veneration for the number fifty is not only extendeth to days, but also to years, for among them fifty years constituted a Jubilee. It was arrived at by multiplying seven years by the number seven. During it they left the ground fallow, and animals were allowed to rest and slaves were emancipated.
The third feast is Sukkoth, which is celebrated after the harvesting of fruits, that is, five months after the feast of Passover. It was celebrated in memory of the day on which Moses first set up the tabernacle, which he had seen in the cloud on Mount Sinai and had been constructed by the artisan Bezalel. Having set up booths, they celebrated this very feast in the fields, and, abiding there, gathered in the fruits of their labors with thanks to God. It seems that it was on the occasion of this feast the David wrote the superscription of the Psalm “Concerning the Press”. This feast was a prefiguration of our resurrection from the dead, when, after the decomposition of our bodily habitation and its recreation, we will enjoy the fruits of our labors, celebrating in the eternal mansions. One should know that on this day of the celebration of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples. And since it pleased the holy fathers to divide the feasts because of the greatness of the most holy and life-creating Spirit, Who is One of the holy and life-creating Trinity, tomorrow we will relate how the Holy Spirit came down. Through the supplications of the holy apostles, O Christ our God, have mercy upon us. Amen.
Translated from the Church Slavonic by Monk Joseph (Isaac) Lambertsen. Copyright Lambertsen Foundation. All rights reserved.